Metro 1 and Finvarb pay $18M for site near Brickell City Centre, plan mixed-use hotel

Tony Cho and Robert Finvarb are diving into unchartered territory – at least for the Wynwood and Miami Beach-based developers.

Robert Finvarb

A joint venture between Metro 1 Development and Robert Finvarb Companies has purchased three properties near Brickell City Centre for $18.4 million with plans to break ground on a mixed-use hotel in a year, Cho told The Real Deal.

Equal partners Cho and Finvarb bought the parcels at 115 Southwest Eighth Street, 726 Southwest First Court and 110 Southwest Seventh Street, and will break ground on a mid-market, millennial-driven hotel development next year.

Records show Edugla Inc. and Romate Corp. sold the 28,866-square-foot site, which runs along Southwest First Court, for $637 per square foot. Tony Arellano, executive vice president of Metro 1 Commercial, brokered the deal. Records show that the parcels last sold in 1975.

Cho, who has typically stayed away from areas like Brickell, said that he was especially excited by the site’s proximity to the Underline’s Brickell Backyard park and to Brickell City Centre. “The sheer density and activity that’s happening there is transformational,” Cho told TRD. “It’s not my usual scene but it was an opportunity to do a special project in a really great location with a really great partner.”

The developers plan a 250,000-square-foot, 24-story project, and are in talks with national hotel flags and retailers. Cho said the retail component could be a health and wellness store or a grocer. Arquitectonica is the architect. As currently planned, it would cost the developers in the $90 million range, he said.

They’re moving forward with the first phase of the twin-branded, 263-key hotel, but Cho told TRD it could also become a single hotel with residential and/or office components, as well. Finvard has developed hotels in South Florida, New York and Washington, D.C., while Cho has focused on developing walkable, urban neighborhoods like Wynwood, Little Haiti and Flagler Village.

“I’m a believer in more of a smaller format, millennial-driven, affordable” development, Cho said.